An 11-year-old boy 's rendition of the national anthem at Game 3 of the NBA finals brought the usual appreciative applause Tuesday , but outside AT&T Center in San Antonio , his performance brought a darker reaction from some posters on social media -- and eventually an online backlash against their racist comments .

See the performance by Sebastien De La Cruz

Here 's a sampling of some of the unkind tweets that went flying around the Internet about Sebastien de la Cruz :

-- `` Why they got a Mexican kid singing the national anthem - ___ - '' from Daniel Gilmore .

-- `` How you singing the national anthem looking like an illegal immigrant '' from Andre Lacey , proud father and firefighter from Augusta , Georgia .

-- `` Why is a foreigner singing the national anthem . I realize that 's San Antonio but that still ai n't Mexico '' from Lewie Groh .

-- `` Who let this illegal alien sing our national anthem ? '' from Matt Cyrus .

And the list went on and on .

As for Sebastien , he said the racist comments have not fazed him .

`` For those that said something bad about me , I understand it 's your opinion , '' said Sebastien to CNN . `` I 'm a proud American and live in a free country . It 's not hurting me . It 's just your opinion . ''

Sebastien has been singing since he was 5 but gained fame in 2012 after being on NBC 's `` America 's Got Talent '' for singing his mariachi ballads with hopes of winning to help his younger brother get surgery for his hearing problem .

Juan de la Cruz , Sebastien 's father , has n't taken the negative comments personally at all .

`` When he was on ` America 's Got Talent , ' he faced racism there , too . You ca n't satisfy everyone , '' said de la Cruz to CNN .

`` I think people reacted the way they did because Sebastien was wearing his mariachi outfit , '' said de la Cruz , `` But , it does n't make sense to listen to those people when most of the feedback we have gotten is positive . San Antonio supports Sebastien . ''

A collection of the negative tweets was posted on Public Shaming , a Tumblr blog dedicated to outing and shaming racists ' social media posts . Other media outlets used that post as the foundation for the story , and the story took off from there .

The blog highlighted 28 tweets from NBA fans who came off as offended and ashamed that the Spurs would allow the boy , who happened to have been born and raised in San Antonio , to sing the nation 's anthem .

However , Public Shaming must have suspected what would happen once the racist tweets were posted because most of the Twitter handles have been deactivated or the tweet has been removed . The blog posted screen shots of the tweets so it could continue to display the public microbloggers ' rants .

After the harsh reaction spread across the Internet , tweets supporting and defending Sebastien and vociferously denouncing his critics started to take over :

-- `` That little 10 year old mariachi National Anthem singer has more talent and grace than the combined racist pig idiots on Twitter , '' from Mexican-American cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz

-- `` Racist scumbag says Chicano kid singing nat'l anthem just `` snuck into the country . '' This idiot 's apparently of color too . @A2daO , '' from Laura Gonzalez , a Chicana Santa Rosa City Schools board member and middle school teacher .

-- `` Why are ppl so upset over a Hispanic singing the national anthem . He 's probably got more roots in here than most ` Americans ' , '' said Amanda Aguirre on Twitter .

-- And , from the American Latino Museum , `` We 're proud of the 11-year old San Anto-native Sebastien de la Cruz for his amazing performance last night ! ''

San Antonio is a multicultural city with more than 55 % of the population being Hispanic and 90 % of those people identifying themselves as Mexican according to the Pew Hispanic Center .

For some Mexican-Americans , the incident was just the latest sign of a persistent problem they face : being treated as outsiders in their own country .

`` To see people acting this way does n't make sense anymore . It 's a demographic fact that the country is changing and Latinos are going to be behind that economic push that moves everyone forward , '' said Chon Noriega , director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center , to CNN . `` Cities like San Antonio are defining a trend of a nation . ''

That the word `` Mexican '' is being used as a derogatory term is part of the problem , said Noriega , `` It 's become the N-word of Mexican descent . Yet it 's also the name of a group of people in a neighboring country . ''

It will take a lot more than some racist tweets to bring Sebastien down .

The `` boy with the golden voice '' tweeted earlier today : `` Please do not pay attention to the negative people . I am an American living the American Dream . This is part of the American life . ''

Sebastien said today was like any other day , but he 's always grateful to wake up to yet another day able to sing . He said he owes his positive outlook to his parents , family and everyone in San Antonio .

See how Sebastien is handling the reaction

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Sebastien de la Cruz , 11 , sang the national anthem at NBA finals on Tuesday

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Racists comments spread via Twitter after the Mexican-American boy 's performance

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Sebastien stands resilient : `` I 'm a proud American and live in a free country . It 's not hurting me . ''

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Father says he is n't `` taken the comments personally , ca n't satisfy everyone ''